Fall River's Victor Innovative Textiles to close

Employees at Victor Innovative Textiles on Commerce Drive were informed Thursday that their factory would be shutting down, possibly within the next two months. The plant’s corporate owner, Victor Group of Saint-Georges, Quebec, Canada, released a statement Friday morning that did not mention the...

Employees at Victor Innovative Textiles on Commerce Drive were informed Thursday that their factory would be shutting down, possibly within the next two months.

The plant’s corporate owner, Victor Group of Saint-Georges, Quebec, Canada, released a statement Friday morning that did not mention the closure but stated the company’s intent to “begin a structured withdrawal from the residential fabric market, with a gradual phase out of their Residential business Unit taking place over the next two quarters.”

“This was a difficult decision because we have invested much time, effort, resources and capital into this business unit. But the reality is this business is simply not sustainable in the future,” said Victor President and CEO Alain Duval, in the statement.

Employees confirmed that Duval had flown from Quebec and held a meeting with a group of employees and managers late Thursday morning to make the announcement. Employees who were not at the meeting received the news from management. The Fall River factory has about 85 to 100 employees and produces fabric for use in the manufacture of upholstery.

When finally reached by phone Friday afternoon, Martin Roy, the general manager of Victor’s Fall River factory, answered, “I do not have time,” and promptly hung up.

Victor Group had acquired, in an auction, machinery from the former Quaker Fabric factory in 2007. Victor Group's factory also hired many of Quaker's former workers.

Last year, Victor Innovative Textiles, as the local plant is called, was the recipient of a state workforce development grant. It had received another state grant in 2010. Those grants totaled more than $100,000, according to previous Herald News reports.

City officials were informed of the factory’s impending closure and said they would act to ensure workers are able to find new employment.

Kenneth Fiola, the vice president of the Fall River Office of Economic Development, said manufacturing in the city has declined in recent decades.

In 1991, the city had 17,000 manufacturing jobs. That number is down to fewer than 5,000, Fiola said.

The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires most employers with 100 or more employees to provide notification 60 calendar days in advance of plant closings and mass layoffs.

Bristol County Training Consortium director Diane Nadeau said the consortium would be working to assist employees as they transition to new work. Nadeau said that assistance is possible because of a recent $1 million grant BCTC received. Other funds from the Department of Labor have diminished over the years.

City councilors said they would push city administrators and state and congressional legislators to act.

“Although this loss of jobs is not on the scale of the losses that occurred in 2007 due to the Quaker closing, these individuals will need all of the assistance that the city can provide to them,” said City Councilor Eric Poulin in an email Friday morning.

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“I’m very sad to hear this news, and I extend my sympathies to those employees and their families.

Poulin filed a resolution that has been added to the agenda of next week’s City Council meeting:

“BE IT RESOLVED, that the City Council urges the Flanagan Administration, the Fall River Office of Economic Development, the Bristol Workforce Investment Board and the Congressional Delegation to assist these employees with finding new employment and/or that they receive any and all benefits allowed from federal and state training or retraining programs.”

According to its statement, Victor Group operates several “state-of-the-art” mills in Canada, as well as Grand Rapids, Mich., and Fall River. Victor also operates a design studio in New York, N.Y.